Opinion: At core of US healthcare dysfunction – it's the prices, stupid

Last week, I wrote about an uninsured 28-year-old Portage woman, Casey Majewski, who went to the emergency room in June after she fainted, a one-hour visit that resulted in a $1,300 bill. Readers were quick to point out that even under Obamacare, co-pays and deductibles make it unlikely that all or even any of the bill would have been covered by health insurance. They make a good point. But it also underscores one of the little-discussed aspects of American health care -- and one of the values of insurance, even if it has a very high deductible. Had Majewski had insurance, it's highly unlikely she would have been billed $1,300 because of the discounts negotiated between insurers and health-care providers